Just sending up a smoke signal to see if everyone is holding up alright in the ice? I've heard that there's been a state of emergency declared in TO. We're lucky to still have power here, but it seems like we're in the minority in Southern Ontario right now. Lots of friends, family and neighbours have been out since last night, and many were caught unprepared. Tree limbs continue to fall and the temperature is dropping again. We're all set here if we end up losing power, so we spent the day clearing tree limbs, and ice from the walkways and sewer grates, and checking on our elderly neighbours. Be safe friends!

“This is the part in the movie where that guy says, "Zombies? What zombies?" just before they eat his brains. I don't want to be that guy.” ― Holly Black, Kin

I'm in Cambridge, and had no power from 7:30am yesterday until 12:30am today. My neighbours behind me had power, but my side of the street, as well as much of the rest of my subdivision was without.

What worked in our preps;
We have a generator, and it fired up right away. I didn't use it to power anything though, as I didn't expect the power to be off long, as my neighbours had power.
We have lots of candles, so had light right away.
The temp outside was from 0C to 1C, so I took the food from my fridge and put it into coolers on the back porch right away. Doing this let me not run the generator, saving the fuel. Also, with the temp being so mild, my house only dropped from 21C to 18C over 17 hours.
Our phones were charged when the power went out, and we were able to keep them charged from the laptop batteries. 3 cells, 3 laptops.

What didn't work;
My wife didn't know how to use the generator. I'm going to fix this, and once she is comfortable with it, get my 13 year old daughter comfortable with it. Had I not been home, this wouldn't have even been an option for them to use.
I need to have a heat source when he power goes out. My furnace is hardwired in, so I can't just unplug it from the wall and plug it into the generator. A friend of mine is an electrician, and I will be having him come fix this, post haste. Next step will be to be able to heat the house with no natural gas, but one thing at a time.
Things are too spread out. We had to go upstairs for some candles, and downstairs for others. As these will be used only on the main floor during an emergency, we are going to store them there. We can get them from one place on the main floor any time we need them during normal use.

All in all it was a decent day without power. We played board games, and put off chores that normally get done on Sundays. Had picnic lunch and dinner.

We lost power in the wee hours last night, and were out for about 10 hours. We're lucky to live on the same block as an EMS depot, so tend to get back up quicker than the surrounding areas. Friends and family are still out and heading into their third day. Local reports are estimating that it could be out at least until the weekend.

We ventured out this morning for a bit of warm air and a hot breakfast, and the main roads were all clear, but many traffic lights were still out. There are trees and power lines down all over the place, and many that look like they're about to go at any moment. It looks like there's more precipitation and cold weather in the forecast tomorrow too. Yuck.

On the home-front, we're realizing how drafty this old house of ours really is, especially when it's coated in a thick sheet of ice. We've got all the emergency supplies we need, except a generator and alternate heating system, but the house cooled off quickly. Not sure how low it got but it was up to 69C a couple of hours after we got home. We were just debating bugging-out when the power came back on. We've been super-warming for the furnace and a space heater since the furnace fan started spinning again, in case we lose it again tonight.

The furnace has been on for about 11 hours now, and the house is still chilly. We put wool blankets around all the doors and windows to help cut the drafts, and everyone put on our thermal long underwear, winter hats and fleece sweaters. We brought the kids into our bedroom, threw an extra wool blanket onto the bed, powered up a battery powered lantern, read a book to the ten year old, and set up the pack-n-play as a mini playground for Little Miss I'm Wide Awake and I WANT TO PLAY! It was actually really cozy, except for the whining.

Sidenote: I hated wearing tights/leotards when I was a kid but they are my new favourite thing!! I can't keep socks or slippers on the girl, but she can't get tights off. HOORAY!!

A small successful DIY project: I tweaked a soup can stove, using an overturned Ikea utensil can as a pot stand, for a much needed cup of coffee this morning. It worked brilliantly with some tea lights!

Belated "Thank You!" to my husband and son for buying me a cheapo Coleman watch with a built in LED. It got a serious work-out, and though I switched to my Peztl e+Lite headlite to make coffee and change a diaper hands-free, it performed admirably!

Adding to tomorrow's shopping list:

-cash. There wasn't an ATM or interact machine working anywhere in our area. (BTW, by all reports, only one grocery store was open in our city, and they had no dairy or meat available that didn't come in a can or a jar, and they were completely overrun with customers.)

-more AA and C batteries. We're not out but I want to restock what we've used asap, just in case. Our crank flashlight and radio worked wonders, btw. I especially recommend giving the shake kind of flashlight to a one year old. It amused her for the longest time!

-a new piece of meat for Christmas dinner. Our frozen bird was stuffed and I'm leary about it. Hopefully a local store or farmer has something in the morning.

-more dairy goods. We lost all of our milk, cream, egg nog and eggs too. The panty is loaded but it's Christmas!

Thank goodness the rest of the family Christmas dinner I'm hosting tomorrow night was comprised of veggies and bread, which made it through just fine. Of course, we do have instant potatoes, stove top stuffing, canned cranberries and veggies, not to mention a few turkey MREs in the panty, so we could wing it if we really needed to!

Merry Christmas everyone! Stay warm!

“This is the part in the movie where that guy says, "Zombies? What zombies?" just before they eat his brains. I don't want to be that guy.” ― Holly Black, Kin